Television Reviews

Originally introduced as a spin-off to a television series created for the sole purpose of selling Masters of the Universe toys, She-Ra gets a reboot in the new series from DreamWorks Animation and Netflix. With more of an anime feel, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power introduces us to the orphaned Adora (Aimee Carrero) as the most naive solider in history whose eyes are opened to the Horde‘s evils when she ventures out beyond the Fright Zone and meets her first princess. Although Hordak is present in cameo roles, the main villains for Adora are her former friend Catra (AJ Michalka) who remains with the Horde and the evil sorceress Shadow Weaver (Lorraine Toussaint) who hopes to bring Adora back where she belongs. After discovering the Sword of Protection and seeing the Horde’s rampant destruction, Adora is forced to leave behind her best friend and set out on a new path as the protector of Etheria.

When two students from the rival high school go missing, Alaric (Matthew Davis) sends a team of students to investigate. Paired together on their undercover investigation, distrust continues to be an issue between Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell) and Landon (Aria Shahghasemi). When initial evidence points to a vampire, MG (Quincy Fouse) is forced to make a difficult choice and comes clean about Kaleb‘s (Chris De’Sean Lee) nocturnal habits, however the real threat is revealed to be a giant arachnid feeding on the students of the school while searching for the mystical dagger. The arachnid turns out to be a formidable threat, but nothing a trio of witches can’t deal with, but another mystical disturbance and the revelation of Kaleb feeding on local girls raises tensions between the school and local law enforcement.

The season’s theme of unexpected alliances continues as Oliver (Stephen Amell) finds an old frenemy on Level 2, and Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) enlists the help of both Laurel (Katie Cassidy) and Dinah (Juliana Harkavy) to discover what off-the-books experiments Dr. Jarrett Parker (Jason E. Kelley) is doing with inmates on a facility the prison doesn’t even admit exists. Although the show has really short-changed the character, the return of Talia al Ghul (Lexa Doig) offers some nice prison escape fight sequences and helps give closure to Talia’s storyline (and continue to tease a Batman connection to the Arrowverse that The CW has shown no actual interest in ever exploring). The torture Oliver endures also opens a new possible legal recourse to get him out of prison.

“Parasite Lost” presents two threats for Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) and the DEO. The first, involving the Jensen (Anthony Konechny) reborn as the new Parasite with the ability to drain the life force of humans and powers of aliens, offers too much danger for Supergirl to fight and becomes the responsibility of Alex (Chyler Leigh) and the DEO. The new Parasite works well, and I’m a bit sad to see the character knocked-off so quickly (although there’s always room for a new Parasite down the road). With Kara uninvolved here, at least until the two storylines converge in the final act, “Parasite Lost” allows more time for Kara Danvers than Supergirl as she works on a story about an alien healer and then deals with the fallout with the help of J’onn (David Harewood) who it seems has found a new purpose.